Touch to Play -- Exploring Touch-Based Mobile Interaction with Public Displays

Mobile interactions with public displays are often indirect and not very convenient for multiple users at the same time. In this paper we use the physical, touch-based interaction with Near Field Communication (NFC) to investigate direct mobile interactions with public displays for multiple users. For that purpose, we adopt the Whack-a-Mole game for dynamic NFC-displays, which combine the physical interaction with NFC-tagged objects and the visual output capabilities of public displays. We show that a grid of NFC-tags can be used to implement direct mobile interaction with public displays in general and a highly interactive multiplayer game in particular. Our study shows that users appreciate this physical, NFC-based mobile interaction, although technical advances are still necessary in order to improve its recognition rate of about 70%. The study also indicates that users are willing to interact with large displays in public, but prefer private or semi-public places, where their interactions attract less attention.